The craziest damn thing happened Tuesday night.
No, it wasn't that the Braves beat the Nationals 8-2. Nor was it crazy that the Marlins beat the Mets. And it's just sheer numbers that the Braves and Mets are now tied for the division lead.
The crazy thing that happened came in the 8th inning of the Marlins game in Flushing as Marlins pitcher Richard Bleier was called for three balks. In the same inning. During the same at-bat. He literally balked a run to second, to third, and then to home. It was the first three balks of Bleier's career and came in his 304th game in the majors.
The Marlins would hold on for the victory and perfectly rational women and men can debate whether the balks were legitimate or not. But this is supposedly a Braves blog so as I watched this unfurl, I had two thoughts. One - this umpire has money on the Mets. But second, and the reason I'm writing this post, is to ponder if a Brave ever committed three balks in a game, let alone one inning.
As a rule, balks were introduced in 1898. I'm not really sure when boxscores started to record them and how valid the data is from that area. According to Baseball-Reference, the first three-balk game came in 1930 by Cleveland pitcher, Milt Shoffner. Difficulty level - he only faced eleven batters.
The Braves' organization has four games where their pitcher threw at least three balks. Here are their stories.
Chipman’s Mistakes
The first two three-balk games in 1950 by a pair of Bob's. On June 4, in the second game of a double-header, Bob Chipman took the mound. Born in Brooklyn, Chipman started his career with his hometown team in 1941 before getting traded to the Cubs in 1944 for future Braves second-baseman, Eddie Stanky. A year after the Braves traded Stanky away, they purchased Chipman from the Cubs prior to the 1950 season. The now 31-year-old Chipman would toss 124 innings for Boston in 1950, but less than 100 over the next two seasons as a reliever while his career came to a close. He took the ball on the fourth of June for his first start of the year after eight relief appearances. The Reds won the first game 3-0.
Things got off a rough start. Nursing a 1-0 lead, Chipman gave up a game-tying homer to Peanuts Lowrey, the second batter he faced. Bob Usher followed with a walk and Ted Kluszewski stepped in. I am being told that Ted Kluszewski is not the Unabomber. Chipman, I suppose, was rattled nevertheless and balked Usher to second and then to third. He didn't complete the full Bleier by balking him home as Kluszewski made it 2-1 with a sacrifice fly. Finding a new way to fill out his boxscore, Chipman hit Johnny Wyrostek next and balked him to second with Virgil Stallcup at the plate. Finally, Chipman got a grounder to Gene Mauch to end the frame.
I swear to you that I didn't make up any names from the previous paragraph. Chipman not only became the first Brave with three recorded balks in a game, he grouped them all in the same inning.
Fun fact - Chipman would "right" the ship enough to stick around into the eighth inning and got the win in a 7-6 game
A Few Days Later...
History would repeat itself five days later. Boston left Ohio behind and visited St. Louis next. That's when the gave the ball to Bob Hall. A rookie the previous year, Hall would really struggle in 1950. This would be just one of his four starts on the year and he finished with a 6.97 ERA over 21 games and 50.1 innings. His days as a Brave were over and he next resurfaced for the Pirates in 1953 with a similar lack of success as his major league career finished.
It was not an enviable matchup for Hall. While the Cardinals would finish just fifth in the NL, they still had Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, and Red Schoendienst. They'd even get Peanuts Lowrey later. I bet you thought I wouldn't ever mention Peanuts again, but you were wrong.
Unlike Chipman, Hall spaced his balks out. His first inning balk made it 2-0 as it scored Musial. He hit Eddie Kazak in the third following a Slaughter two-run homer and then balked him to second. An inning later, he got his last balk out of the way after an infield single by Max Lanier. He'd be removed before the inning was over with the Cardinals up 6-1. St. Louis would withstand a Braves rally to win 8-5 despite Chipman coming in and retiring all six batters he faced.
New City, New Bob
It would be a long thirteen years before another Braves arm suffered through a three-balk game. In the meantime, they'd move to Milwaukee and win a World Series. But their days in Milwaukee were beginning to come to a close by May 4, 1963. Nobody who came to County Stadium that day was aware they were about to witness a baseball record that was about to be broken, but life can move pretty fast.
Taking the ball was Bob Shaw. Did you know six different Bob's have had three-balk games with Bob Welch doing it twice? I'm not even counting Bobby Witt Sr.
As for Shaw, he was a righty who was born in the Bronx. Despite some success, he moved around a lot early in his career after coming to the majors with the Tigers in 1957. A year later, he was traded to the White Sox and would finish 18-6 in 1959, good for a third-place finish in the Cy Young. You'd think that would be the start of a long career in one city especially with no free agency, but Shaw would be traded to the Kansas City Athletics in 1961 along with former Brave, Wes Covington, in a deal that sent Don Larsen to the White Sox. His time with the A's was very short-lived as he was moved that winter to the Braves.
Already suiting up for his fourth team, Shaw again found success. In 1962, he went to his only All-Star game as he finished 15-9 with a 2.80 ERA. That takes us to 1963, another very good year for Shaw. Coming into the season, he had been called for just one balk in his career.
The Cubs were in town and that meant a lineup with Lou Brock, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, and Ernie Banks. Yikes. In the first, Shaw gave up a single to Williams and committed his first balk. He'd get out of the frame without any serious damage. Both teams scored a run in the second inning with Shaw getting an RBI groundout. In the third, things unraveled a bit. Shaw started the third by walking Williams. He then flirted with a Bleier by balking Williams to second and then third with Santo at the plate. After a flyball and a K, Shaw walked Andre Rodgers. That brought Nelson Mathews to the plate and Shaw completed the Bleier by balking Williams home. Sure, not the same at-bat, but three in one inning is something.
It was also Shaw's fourth balk. That tied the major league record originally set by Vic Raschi in 1950 and tied just a few weeks before by Bob Friend of Pittsburgh. But Shaw wasn't done and neither were the Cubs.
The score was tied again, this time with both teams stuck in a 2-2 tie as the fifth opened up. There was that man again as Williams singled. After a force-out, Santo was now on base and Banks singled him to second. Rodgers stepped back in and that's when Shaw set a major league record with his fifth balk. He'd go on to walk Rodgers and then Mathews to make it 3-2 before he was lifted. A wild pitch and base hit led to three runs, all charged to Shaw. By the end of the inning, it was 7-2 Cubs. Chicago would hold on for a 7-5 win.
But the story doesn't quite end there. In the eighth inning, Denny Lemaster entered. With two outs, that man AGAIN stepped up and Billy Williams earned a walk. And wouldn't ya know it but Lemaster balked him to second. When Shaw committed his fifth balk, the Braves already established a new major league record. Lemaster's balk is important because it extended the record to six balks in a single game. Only twice since has a team committed five balks in a season game.
I bet all 8,524 in attendance came away amazed by what they saw at County Stadium that day.
Knucklebalk
That brings us to the final instance of a four-balk game by a Braves pitcher and this time, let's push the Bob's to the side for a Hall of Famer. On September 7, 1974, the Braves were 77-62, but were also-rans in the NL West as the Dodgers and Reds were battling for supremacy. 6,051 fans came through the turnstiles of Atlanta Stadium as the Braves hosted the San Francisco Giants.
It promised to be a pitcher's dual as the Giants' ace, Jim Barr, was gunning for his 12th victory against the Braves' ace, Phil Niekro. Already in his Age-35 season, Niekro would finish third in the Cy Young balloting that year and lead the NL in wins, complete games, and innings pitched.
Niekro would get his first balk out of the way in the first inning. After Garry Maddox singled, Niekro's balk advanced him into scoring position. He'd get out of that frame, but his second balk in the second directly led to an RBI single to make it 1-0. His third balk in the fourth scored Bobby Bonds and made it 2-0. It was more than enough for Barr, who threw a six-hitter despite two balks of his own as the Giants rolled to a 6-0 win.
Never On The Receiving End
Of the 45 games involving three balks by an individual pitcher, none have benefitted the Braves. Even in 1988, when a ridiculous focus on the rule book led to 22 - or almost half of the - games in which a pitcher committed three or more balks. Now, the Braves have benefitted from three-balk games when multiple pitchers were tagged with said balks.
Eleven days after Bob Chipman's three-balk game for Boston in 1950, the Reds returned the favor on June 15th in Boston. Again, it was the second game of a double-header. Of some, I hope, interest is that two of the balks came in the first inning as Boston scored five runs on just two hits and the two balks came from two different pitchers. Boston would blow their lead, but win it in 10 innings on a RBI single by Tommy Holmes.
The second instance came in the Astrodome on April 5, 1989. In just the second game of the season, three different Astros pitchers would get called for a balk. Bonus points - over at first base was Bob Davidson, who rightfully earned the nicknames "Balkin' Bob" and "Balk-a-Day Bob." For good measure, Braves starter Pete Smith also picked up a balk. Atlanta would hold on for an 8-4 win.
And with that, let's stop talking about balks for a little while.
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